Polythene Eradication - children initiative

Activity area: Mitigation; Adaptation
Website
Location: Tiruchuli Block, Virudunagar District, India
Established: April 2010

The activity, which has spread to seven states in India, started with 30 children in Tiruchuli, Virudunagar to mitigate climate change and mainstream awareness among children, who often are particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts. The activity has a dual goal of increasing climate resilience among children and youth while also contributing to mitigation efforts. The activity requires each member of the movement to contribute a minimum of five kilos of plastic waste as their subscription to the movement.

The movement secretariat sells the plastic waste at a market price and uses the money on advocacy, awareness-building campaigns and mitigation activities such as tree planting.

There are currently around 15,000 members across India. To date, the activity has managed to collect 5,000 kilos of plastic. Tiruchuli Block, the pioneering locality alone raised around Rs. 25,000 and carried out a district-level signature campaign demanding mitigation to be mainstreamed by local government authorities. As a result, the district administration and Panchayat administration passed a decision that local shopkeepers and vendors will be fined for delivering articles to the buyers in plastic carry bags, with a corresponding fine also imposed on customers. This local government action has created attitudinal change among the public towards greater appreciation of climate change mitigation and adaptation needs.

Mitigation / Adaptation

This activity makes a contribution both to climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts through mobilizing the children and youth.

Benefits

Enhanced communal harmony and cohesion as a result of children working together;
-Better capacity among the children to adapt to and mitigate climate change.

Potential for scaling-up and replication

Starting out small, the initiative has already expanded to seven states of India, with the intention to scale up to a number of others across the country.